Curtis Mayfield: "Superfly" (LP Vinyl Album) CRS 8014 (1972) Classic Soul-Funk

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37

You are bidding on a Vinyl issue of Curtis Mayfield’s groundbreaking funk soul classic from 1972; the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack from the movie “Superfly.” (Curtom CRS 8014-ST). This album contains groundbreaking funk classics such as “Superfly”, “Pusherman,” and “Freddie’s Dead” among others. See photos.

As best we can tell, this is not a Re-Issue, but  is release from 1972, the year it was originally issued.

We purchased this item decades ago, played it (and enjoyed it!), and it has been sitting in our home (vertically) for the last few decades. 

The LP is in very good condition, but there are some markings; The LP cover is in very good condition, but there are signs of wear.  Please remember that this album was well taken care of, but it was played as part of our record collection decades ago. We have tried to show the wear on the LP cover in the photos included with the listing.

This item has been stored at room temperature, in a smoke free home.  Please see photos of actual item being sold. 

““Curtis Mayfield:  “Superfly Soundtrack”

The choice of Curtis Mayfield to score the blaxploitation film Super Fly was an inspired one. No other artist in popular music knew so well, and expressed through his music so naturally, the shades of gray inherent in contemporary inner-city life. His debut solo album, 1970's Curtis, had shown in vivid colors that the '60s optimist (author of the civil-rights anthems "Keep On Pushing" and "People Get Ready") had added a layer of subtlety to his material; appearing on the same LP as the positive and issue-oriented "Move On Up" was an apocalyptic piece of brimstone funk titled "(Don't Worry) If There's a Hell Below, We're All Going to Go." For Super Fly, Mayfield wisely avoids celebrating the wheeling-and-dealing themes present in the movie, or exploiting them, instead using each song to focus on a different aspect of what he saw as a plague on America's streets. He also steers away from explicit moralizing; through his songs, Mayfield simply tells it like it is (for the characters in the film as in real life), with any lessons learned the result of his vibrant storytelling and knack of getting inside the heads of the characters. "Freddie's Dead," one of the album's signature pieces, tells the story of one of the film's main casualties, a good-hearted yet weak-willed man caught up in the life of a pusher, and devastatingly portrays the indifference of those who witness or hear about it. "Pusherman" masterfully uses the metaphor of drug dealer as businessman, with the drug game, by extension, just another way to make a living in a tough situation, while the title track equates hustling with gambling ("The game he plays he plays for keeps/hustlin' times and ghetto streets/tryin' ta get over"). Ironically, the sound of Super Fly positively overwhelmed its lyrical finesse. A melange of deep, dark grooves, trademarked wah-wah guitar, and stinging brass, Super Fly ignited an entire genre of music, the blaxploitation soundtrack, and influenced everyone from soul singers to television-music composers for decades to come. It stands alongside Saturday Night Fever and Never Mind the Bollocks Here's the Sex Pistols as one of the most vivid touchstones of '70s pop music.”

“From the sweeping string arrangements, to Curtis's pulsating wah-wah guitar over a super-funk rhythm section, to his heartfelt falsetto singing of insightful lyrics, the Super Fly soundtrack is as timeless today as it was timely in the early 1970s. This is a complex, technically brilliant, yet endlessly moving masterpiece from one of the greatest R&B songwriters and musicians.

It is difficult to say if this is Mayfield's greatest single achievement, considering he is the man who wrote "People Get Ready," but it certainly is his most influential and popular album, and for good reason. The sound of virtually every urban crime drama on film and television, blaxploitation or not, borrowed heavily from the Super Fly soundtrack, and the seeds of what would become both disco and hip hop were planted when this record debuted.

Most importantly, this album stands the test of time as a funky, enthralling musical journey for the ages”.